Roaches, Butterflies and Jelllyfish, Oh My!

We took our first homeschool field trip of the year last week! We are members of the Audubon Institute so we decided to do a field trip to the Insectarium since we are studying Insects this month in our Apologia Science lessons. We'd been there before but I was very happy to see H take his time and look at the exhibits. He genuinely wanted to learn about the bugs.

We were able to go with another family and it was great to see them again. Both the Insectarium and Aquarium were undergoing some modifications so I'm looking forward to seeing what new exhibits they are cooking up in there!

Both museums are doable in one day, and we enjoyed it immensely. We had lunch on the river in Woldenberg Park and the boys had a blast. As we walked back to the car, E said, "This was the most AWESOME field trip!"

If you're in the New Orleans area, take the time to check out everything the Audubon Institute has to offer, it's amazing!

Roach TV!! It's so creepy it's awesome! Check out this one and many more at www.apl.tv.

 It's hard to get these two to take a normal photo!

 The butterfly garden is awesome!

 The Crescent City really is an amazing city. I complain, but all it takes is one trip to the French Quarter and I'm in love again.

 Even Jedi's need to go on field trips.

 Trapped!!

The jellyfish are one of my favorite exhibits at the Aquarium.

I hope we can go on at least one field trip a month! We'll save the zoo for when the weather is a little cooler. If you go in the summer months the animals are just sad and hot!

~~~Amy

Butterflies are grown!

We studied some butterflies earlier this summer. We didn't do a full on study as we will do Insects in September when we start back up to school. But I couldn't resist a deal on a butterfly garden net we found and we loved it.  You can reorder more caterpillars when your first batch goes free so I think we will do that again in September.
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I was a little worried the little guys wouldn't make it at first because it was SO hot when they arrived.

But they did, crawling all around the cup.

We followed the directions, watched them turn into their cocoons, and when it was time, moved them into their habitat and watched them grow into little butterflies fluttering around! The boys got a big kick out of it and I plan to buy more caterpillars so we can do it again!

I encourage every family to give this one a try, it's super fun and easy!
~Amy

Getting ready....

Can't believe it's almost the end of June! Our summer home-school session starts next Monday, the 24th!!! Crazy! I've gotten all our curriculum, made our lesson plans and gotten stuff prepped for the first week or two. I'm very excited!!
For those curious about what we're using, here's a rundown:

*Saxon Math: 1 for Eli and Saxon Math 3 for Harrison.
*Five in a Row for overall curriculum for Eli. I think it's a tad young for Harrison, but I think that he will enjoy doing it with us, especially the crafts. I really like this program because it takes a book and they read it every day, (hence the five in a row), which really reinforces the points in the story..it's how I like teaching literature.
*Apologia Science: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day. I think this will be too advanced for Eli, who's a Kindergartner, but he can listen in or he can just do the experiments with us.
*Story of the World: This is a great classical history curriculum that again may be too advanced for Eli, but he can listen in from time to time, and do the activities with us. I plan to incorporate Harrison's love of Minecraft into this, giving him the task of creating worlds to match what we are studying.

We will add Spelling and Geography for Harrison and Phonics for Eli in the fall. There are a ton of other little things we do that I don't talk about like adding words to our Word Wall, arts, Legos, educational apps on the Kindle and Ipad, etc. They resume PE in the fall as well.

I think we are slowly getting used to the idea of homeschooling. We are getting more used to being together ALL the time. They've had their ups and downs of attitudes, behaviors and getting along. I'm reevaluating how I deal with the children and how I allow myself to react to their behaviors. I know we'll get on each other's nerves, I know they'll have bad days, I know there will be days where the house looks like it exploded (okay that's ever day...) but I hope they enjoy learning at their own pace, and really, truly absorbing what we study.

Thanks for coming along on our journey!~~
Amy

May Photo Purge

Been a busy and quick month here with us! The little finished preschool making us officially homeschoolers for both boys! We wrapped up school with the oldest, and we started our summer break. School session for us resumes late June for about 8 weeks then taking the whole month of August off. I figure that works wonderfully so that when public school starts here around the 8th of August, we can enjoy the pool at our gym in relative peace again!! Also, should another hurricane strand us for days again, no worry about making up days for school!

So here's a little photo purge of what we've done!

Mostly gardening, swimming, zoo, a little redecorating and enjoying life! The crazy days are crazy but the good days are great!
~~Amy